An Evening with Blaise
by BoredRavenvlaw620
Summary: A one shot shoot-off from Interns. Blaise finally gets his proper date with Avery. Can Blaise cook? What draws him to Avery? Is there something there or is it destined to be just a fling?


**A/N: A little one shot from the _Interns_ universe to quell the curiosity about Blaise and Avery. Hope you enjoy. Please leave a review and let me know what you think.**

 **J.K. Rowling retains the rights to the Harry Potter universe. (I did however make up Avery!)**

* * *

 **An Evening with Blaise**

Blaise had a reputation. He was a ladies man. He didn't mind this label, hell most women didn't mind this label. They knew what they were getting into. Occasionally he encountered the random clinger, but he could usually shake them with his charming ways. He didn't want to make enemies after all, and he definitely didn't want bad press from one of his dalliances. He wasn't averse to the idea of a relationship, but the women he often met just didn't hold his interest.

He had grown up with a mother who changed men like she changed shoes. His father died when he was young, before he could really know him, and by the time he was in Hogwarts he'd had seven different stepfathers and his mother had designs on number eight. His grasp on healthy relationships came mostly from observing the parents of his friends, though to be fair most of the pureblood marriages he saw were rife with dysfunction.

Avery had thrown him off however. She was beautiful, smart, and witty; and she was not clingy, perhaps that was what drew in the most. She hadn't given him even a hint of needy female since their Halloween encounter, in fact she acted as if she didn't want him to pursue her, but he couldn't get her out of his mind. The feel of her skin under his hands, his lips on her body, her lips on his, the sound of his name on her lips. He needed more.

* * *

Blaise was removing the lasagna from the oven when he heard his floo sound, signaling the object of his thoughts had arrived. He quickly put the hot dish on the worktop and went into his living room to greet his guest.

Blaise stopped in his tracks as he appraised the beautiful woman who emerged from the floo. She was tall and thin, curves in all the right places; she was wearing a sapphire blue V-neck sweater that accented her tasteful cleavage, and a pair of skinny black pants that reminded him of her cat suit on Halloween, her heeled booties capped off her look. Tonight, her shiny auburn hair fell in soft waves over her shoulders; she was a sexy site.

Blaise shook himself out of his stupor just in time to see Avery's satisfied smirk. "Good evening gorgeous. Welcome back." He purred stepping toward her intending to kiss her, but changed his tactic at the last minutes at the look of her raised eyebrows.

He instead grasped her hand gently kissing her knuckles. She rolled her eyes at the formality, "Something certainly smells good." She said.

"I hope you like lasagna?"

Avery nodded and followed Blaise into the dining room. He pulled out her chair and helped her settle at the beautifully set table. He poured a measure of red wine into her glass and then his, and retreated to the kitchen for the aforementioned lasagna.

Avery took a sip of the wine just as Blaise appeared proudly holding a steaming pan of food.

"Did you make this yourself, Zabini?" Avery asked in a teasing lilt while giving the casserole a sideways glance.

Blaise laughed heartily at her suspicions, "As a matter of fact I did." He answered while seating himself across from her. "Though to be fair this and scrambled eggs are really the only things I can cook."

Avery returned his laugh and they settled in for what turned out to be a delicious supper.

They talked of neutral things during dinner each purposefully straying from what they really wanted to discuss, but as the bottle of wine drained before them so did their apprehensions.

Blaise retrieved a second bottle of wine from the kitchen as Avery made to settle on one end of the sofa. Blaise returned and deciding to be a gentleman, settled on the opposite end; though his view of her scrumptious body relaxed on his sofa was consolation enough for the lack of closeness…for now.

"So, Blaise," Avery started teasingly, letting her guard down with each subsequent sip of wine, "is this how the fabled seduction usually plays out?"

Taking a sip of his wine, Blaise answered coolly, "For your information, no. I do not usually put this much effort into seduction."

At this Avery calmly placed her glass on the coffee table and made to stand. "Well, I'm sorry I'm not worth the effort Mr. Zabini." She stated calmly as she started toward the floo, but he stopped her just before she reached it.

Avery stood stock still, schooling her emotions; Blaise's hands felt hot through the fabric of her sweater as he held her upper arms. He looked lost and she softened beneath his gaze. He smiled, a genuine smile, not a smirk, but a genuine soft smile; and he placed a soft chaste kiss on her lips.

Avery let go of the breath she was involuntarily holding and relaxed as Blaise spoke, "I told you, I'm shite at this. What I should have said was that it's not often I find a woman such as yourself."

She looked into his brown eyes, noticing the flecks of green that you could only see up close, a confused expression on her face.

Blaise chuckled, Avery huffed at his finding humor in the situation, and he continued, "You, Avery Chatham, are worth every bit of effort, and don't let anyone tell you different." And with that he kissed her once again, but a bit more firmly and led her back to the couch. This time seating himself closer to her.

They each picked up their glasses and took a calming sip of wine. "I'm sorry." Avery said quietly.

Blaise waved off the apology, "You have no reason to be, I'm well aware of my reputation." Blaise said sardonically.

Avery snorted at this and quickly hid her embarrassed smile behind her hand, Blaise chuckled, thankful for the distraction. "And what of you Miss Chatham? I find you intriguing."

Smiling at his assessment Avery considered his question with one of her own. "What is it you want to know about me Mr. Zabini?"

"How long have you worked at the Ministry?"

"I've been there about a year and a half now."

"I do hope you'll forgive my presumption, but you seem much too smart to be just a secretary."

Avery gave a mirthless chuckle, "Not to be overly proud, but, yes , I am too smart to be, as you so eloquently phrased it, ' _just a secretary_.'"

"Well, may I ask why you chose your job then?" Blaise inquired, sincerely curious.

"I want to be a healer." She said with a beautiful wistful look in her eyes and Blaise could see the passion she had for the field.

"May I be so bold as to ask why you work in the Law Department at the Ministry and not at St. Mungo's?"

"The pay." She answered simply. "The Ministry pays better than any entry level job I could have at St. Mungo's and I need to save money for the Healer training program."

"Why a healer?" He asked genuinely interested.

Avery smiled at the sincerity in his inquiry, "My parents died when I was a child. A freak accident. My brother and I were raised by our grandparents on our mother's side. My mother was witch, so I grew up around magic and magical healing.

"We were really close to our grandparents, so it was devastating when my granddad got sick the summer before my fifth year. He knew he wouldn't last the summer and did everything he could to prepare us emotionally for it; but I helped my gandmum take care of him and went to every healer's appointment with them. Even though they couldn't cure what he had, the healers helped make that last summer with Grandad one of my fondest with him. If I can give even a little of that comfort to someone else, then I will have made a positive contribution to our world." Blaise smiled at that assessment. "Returning to school after that was hard, leaving Grandmum alone, but she insisted we return. Everything seemed like it would be ok, but then the next year the War broke out." She trailed off quietly.

Blaise nodded solemnly, remembering the atmosphere at Hogwarts those two years, the twisted mess that was Draco's life; Blaise's own struggles to retain his loyalty to his friends and family, but also his political neutrality. He was genuinely curious how she coped through that time.

Avery continued at his contemplative silence, "During the War, I did everything I could to protect my brother at Hogwarts. We had never been trouble makers and I kept a close eye on him and as many from my house as possible. With only Grandmum left we couldn't risk losing the rest of our family by making ourselves targets. The night of the battle, I took my brother and as many younger students as would let me, and we escaped. The younger ones were so scared and at first I felt like a coward for not fighting, but I looked at the innocent faces surrounding me and I knew I'd done the right thing. I couldn't bear the thought of losing anyone else in my family or for those families to lose their children."

Avery took a sip of her wine and then a cleansing breath. She didn't realize they were going to delve this deep on a first date. She looked up at Blaise uncertainly and was shocked when he leaned forward to capture her lips in a sweet kiss.

As he pulled away with an awed expression on his face she sighed, "What was that for?"

"For being amazing." He answered simply. Avery laughed softly at him.

"Annywaay," she drawled trying to bring some levity back to the room, "For right now, I'm working while my little brother finishes Hogwarts and helping my grandmum when I can. But I wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw for nothing; I know how to budget my galleons and I'll be in that program within two years."

Blaise was impressed. This woman ran deeper than he ever imagined. He vowed to himself that he would find a way to help her achieve her goals.

"I won't stand in your way, Avery, but I also won't pretend that I'm not interested in you. And at the risk of laying myself bare here, I'm not dissuaded by your ambition, in fact, we Slytherins find that an admirable trait," She smiled at the admission." "but I see no valid argument as to why we can't have a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"' _Mutually beneficial arrangement?_ ' My, my, Blaise Zabini, you do know how to flatter a girl." Avery laughed, "I will not be your friend with benefits." She said seriously.

"Damn it all, woman!" Blaise huffed, as Avery giggled at the usually suave man's flusters look, "You have bewitched the smooth right out of me. I can't seem to say the right thing around you." He pouted.

Avery laughed outright at that scooting closer to Blaise on the couch, "Alright, how about this? Blaise, are you interested in pursuing a relationship with me?"

Blaise ran his hand on the back of his neck, avoiding her gaze as he chuckled to himself, _What was he getting himself into?_ "Yes. Yes, I would like to pursue a relationship with you."

"See there that wasn't so hard, besides, you're positively adorable when you fumble it all up."

Blaise laughed heartily as he pulled her even closer to capture her lips in a passionate kiss. "And what about you, Avery? What do you want?"

Avery smirked at him and he saw a devious twinkle in her eyes, "I was thinking…scrambled eggs for breakfast?"


End file.
